I like to think I can anticipate most of the questions and objections that will be raised in response to particular sermons. While preparing for this most recent series on baptism, I was already arming myself for questions and expressions of alarm. The view of baptism in some Reformed and Presbyterian churches isn’t very different than what you find in most evangelical and Baptist congregations, so I was prepared for concerns to be raised that what I was saying sounded Roman Catholic or affirmed an unbiblical form of baptismal regeneration. I even thought someone might claim my Church of Christ heritage was tainting my view of the sacrament. This expectation is why I spent time last week assembling quotes from Calvin in order to demonstrate my consistency with the Reformed tradition. Many people whose heresy meter is calibrated by Facebook might be shocked at how Calvin and other Reformers speak of the sacraments. The 19th and 20th centuries weakened the Reformed Church’s understanding of these issues in many ways.
During the lesson I repeatedly clarified and emphasized that Christ’s saving benefits are only received through faith because I expected people would be concerned I was advocating baptismal regeneration. But after the service, a couple of brothers asked me, in a good-natured way, whether I was leaning back toward a credo-baptistic view. My response involved a puzzled expression and a fairly unintelligent and inarticulate: Huuh? So much for anticipating possible questions. I have to admit, I didn’t see that one coming.
I will have a lot more to say about the propriety of baptizing covenant children (including infants) in the next few weeks. What I said about baptism in the first lesson of this most recent series ought to be admitted by all believers, whether they baptize infants or not. But let me note a few things in case others hearing the lesson had the same questions after the service.
First, everything we observed about the relationship between baptism and salvation, all of the promises and work of grace which baptism communicates and confirms, is signified and sealed in the baptism of covenant children. We were discussing the objective significance of the sacrament, and that significance remains whether the recipient is a mature confessor or an infant possessor. Even if a child proves to be a reprobate--which ought never to be assumed--the meaning of baptism remains. There were many non-elect persons in Israel, but their circumcision still testified to the promise and work of Christ.
Second, the baptism of covenant children does not rest on the assumption of their regeneration, but we should not assume their election and regeneration is in doubt. We baptize our children because Scripture teaches us to do so, but many Reformed and Presbyterian Christians seem to think like Baptists when it comes to their kids, waiting to see if they will make a decision for Christ. But the children of believers are already saints (1Cor. 7:14)--the same word in Greek used to identify mature confessors. God promises the Holy Spirit to them (Acts 2:39). They belong to the kingdom of God (Luke 18:16). They are in the Lord (Eph. 6:1). Your child’s spiritual status is not in question. Their status is not merely potential; it is actual and covenantal. Does this mean every child of a believer will prove to be eternally elect unto salvation? No, some children will prove to be Esau, Ahab, or Judas. But this should never be assumed of any child, much less be the assumption regarding every child unless and until they prove otherwise.
Third, the application of baptism (as circumcision in the OT) is a rather conclusive proof that God is working faith in the hearts of covenant children long before most parents realize. Read again all of the passages and allusions we saw concerning baptism’s relationship to salvation. It unites us to Christ, cleansing, quickening, and sanctifying the soul. The Holy Spirit came upon John in the womb and caused him to leap for joy (Luke 1:41-44). The Psalmist trusted Yahweh while feeding at his mother’s breast (Psa. 22:9). The Lord works faith in his people from their birth (Psa. 71:5-6). Some covenant children may have a dramatic “conversion” after a period of rebellion and disobedience, but we should not assume our children need to be converted but rather assume the seed of faith has already been planted within them and trust that it will, by grace, under the ministry of gospel parenting and preaching, grow into a mature and articulate trust in the living God. Baptism does not impart the spiritual blessings it signifies and seals apart from faith, but neither is it a mere memorial of what Christ will do if a person of ripe age and sound mind chooses to cooperate. Baptism is a means of grace, and “the grace promised is not only offered, but really exhibited, and conferred, by the Holy Ghost, to such (whether of age or infants) as that grace belongeth unto, according to the counsel of God's own will, in his appointed time” (WCF 28.6). We are not waiting for our children to decide to become Christians. We baptize them because that is what and who they are. --JME
